WASHINGTON — The Gustavo Petro administration of Colombia faces a major diplomatic fracture with the Donald Trump-led U.S. government after Washington announced sanctions on Petro, his wife Verónica del Socorro Alcócer García, their son Nicolás Fernando Petro Burgos and Colombian Interior Minister Armando Alberto Benedetti, accusing them of failing to stem drug trafficking and allowing cartels to flourish.
The sanctions were announced by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who claimed that under Petro’s presidency cocaine production in Colombia has surged to the highest levels in decades and that this surge has enabled narcotics to flood into the United States. “President Petro has allowed drug cartels to flourish and refused to stop this activity,” Bessent said.
The move marks a sharp escalation in U.S.-Colombia relations, which have long been central to the U.S. anti-narcotics efforts in the region. Alongside the sanctions, the U.S. added Colombia to a list of countries it regards as failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in nearly 30 years, and officials also announced stepped-up military operations targeting suspected trafficking routes.
President Petro responded defiantly via social media and pledged to defend himself in U.S. courts, describing the sanctions as a “paradox” given Colombia’s history of anti-drug cooperation. “Combating drug trafficking for decades and effectively, has brought me this measure from the government of the society we helped so much to curb its cocaine consumption,” he wrote. “Quite a paradox, but not a step back and never on our knees.”
The sanctions include asset freezes and restrictions on U.S. persons doing business with the designated individuals. They are tailored to target Petro’s inner circle rather than broader sanctions on Colombia as a whole, though the broader consequence threatens U.S. aid, trade ties and military cooperation between the two nations.
Analysts warn the fallout may have significant implications for Colombia’s economy, where the United States is a major export market, and for regional stability, as Colombia has in recent years been a linchpin in U.S. hemispheric security policy. The reversal from ally to “non-cooperating partner” in U.S. drug war terminology signals a recalculation of Washington’s Latin America strategy.
